Planning Our Road Trip

Here is the route we plan to take on our way to Portland:

• Boston, MA
• Binghamton, NY
• Niagara Falls, OT
• Detroit, MI
• Chicago, IL
• Minneapolis, MN
• Mt. Rushmore, SD
• Billings, MT
• Yellowstone National Park, WY
• Boise, ID
• Portland, OR

We just need to find attractions and motels along the way.




https://goo.gl/maps/ZHxD2YZPnmw

I am loving Veritasium more and more each time I watch his videos.  Most explain physics, but he has the occasional open musing that are really just too powerful to describe.  You simply have to watch them for yourself.

Here is his musing on 'Learned Helplessness' from social science.

Our greatest Delusion

I thought this was an interesting monologue.

The Black Swan

The black swan is a metaphor for the unknown and the unexpected.  In the old world, the theory was that all swans were white.  So each instance of a white swan would make them think to themselves "Yeah, that theory's pretty good."

But the point is that you can never prove a theory true.  And in fact, when those people found Australia, they realized that there were black swans.

[Everyone interviewed for the experiment would propose something that they thought to be true and then would work to find evidence to support it... but what you should really seek is to find something to negate your belief because provides a lot more information]

If you really believe something, you should try as hard as you can to disprove it.  And its when you can't disprove it that we can say "this must be getting at something really true about our reality." Only then can you get at the Truth and not fool yourself.


{{ That monologue was paraphrased from Veritasium.  They are a great YouTube Channel about science that I encourage you all to subscribe to if you are interested in learning interesting new things about our universe.  Enjoy! }}

I CANNOT UNDERSTATE MY EXCITEMENT FOR THIS MOVIE.
How did a trailer for a movie I've never heard of make me cry?  Seriously?!?!?

Well done, Matt Damon.  I love you.  I can't wait to watch you "science the shit" out of your module.

< Internal monologue: Where can I buy this novel?  I need it ASAP. >

This reminds me of another survival book that i read many suns ago called "Hatchet" by Gary Paulsen, in which a man survives the Canadian wilderness with nothing more than his trusty tool.  I really enjoyed that book as a kid and hope "The Martian" provides me with the same experience as an adult.  We shall see...